Friday, October 31, 2014

The Bavarian Bier Cafe in Sydney has been slammed on social media for a sexist marketing campaign that compares women to meat while attempting to raise money for a breast cancer charity.

Collective Shout, a group that targets marketers which objectify women, says the ad which places the words "we've got the best racks" next to a sexualised image of two women is "flat out exploitation."

The group is asking consumers to complain directly to the restaurant on their Facebook page.

The campaign was launched several months ago and the image was shared on Daily Life's Facebook page on September 27 where it unanimously offended readers.

"While we continue to see women [being] treated as sex objects, equality will never happen. It's not harmless, it's offensive. Think of it this way, is this what we want for our daughters [and] granddaughters of future generations? No!" said reader, Michelle Groeneveld.

In what we can only imagine was a way to "make good" on bad publicity, the cafe recently added a caveat that for every serving of the ribs sold, the company would donate $1 to Treasure Chest Charity, a group which raises money for breast reconstruction for women who have survived breast cancer.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Australian man jailed over abusive text messages

It would be good if everybody could just shrug off verbal attacks but many people are clearly quite upset by them. It seems reasonable to me therefore that -- in extreme cases -- the attackers should be penalized. This was certainly an extreme case

Dan Shearin "promised the world" to dancer Breeana Robinson. Instead, he sent her 1439 text messages in the weeks leading up to her death including ones calling her a "complete f***ing moron" and a "stupid bitch".

The former cruise ship entertainer and author was jailed on Monday for at least two months over a barrage of abusive text messages he sent to Breeana Robinson, who fell to her death from a Gold Coast apartment balcony on January 29, 2013.

Ten minutes before Ms Robinson, 21, plunged from the balcony she received a text which read: "You're more interested in TV, food and everything else but your partner. That's why everything's ruined. Your priorities are f***ed up".

The pair had known each other for a year, but only lived together for 38 days.

During the court case, police said they couldn't prove Shearin messages directly caused Ms Robinson's death but argued the messages caused her great distress

"She only just turned 21. She had the world at her feet and was just starting to blossom. She was sweet-natured and kind. She'd never argue back to anyone. She was just a sweet soul."

The words “dressing up is most definitely encouraged” are generally music to my ears. Except in the case of the Australian Museum's planned Day Of The Dead party on November 1st in Sydney.

The event, a one-off return of the Museum's popular after-hours party Jurassic Lounge, will see traditional Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) elements - including an ofrenda (altar) and Mariachi music - rub rather uncomfortably up against Day Of The Dead-themed burlesque routines, bodypainting, and a silent disco.

It's not a stretch to suggest that they are setting the stage for a whole mess of cultural appropriation as a bunch of white people turn up with their best “sugar skull” face-paint on, or worse, "Mexican" costumes.

Día de Muertos is a holiday that originated in Mexico but is celebrated throughout Latin America, which focuses on gathering family and friends together to pray for and remember loved ones who have passed away. Traditions connected with the holiday include honouring the deceased using sugar skulls and marigolds, and visiting the graves of the departed with their favorite foods and drinks.

This is lost on the growing number of people who throw "Day Of The Dead" parties with scant knowledge of the holiday's true meaning. And yet despite the fact that we now know that grabbing a Native American headdress as an accessory for a magazine cover shoot or cute festival outfit is not appropriate, apparently such cultural sensitivity has not yet filtered down to sugar-skull-crazy partygoers keen to smash a few Tecates.

An institution that you think would have a good handle on protecting the integrity of other cultures is the Australian Museum. But given the organisers’ suggestion that attendees (the event is sold out) dress up, chances are there’ll be plenty of “Mexican” costumes on show.

Increasingly, Día de los Muertos is treated as "Mexcian Halloween" by people who are less keen to understand the significance of the holiday than they are to smash tacos and party on. This is inevitably defended as "celebration" or "appreciation", as opposed to appropriation, but as This Is Not Our Día puts it, "When white people use a sacred tradition (that historically, was suppressed by whites) simply as an excuse to throw a party, it's disrespectful [...] It's obnoxious when white people are lauded and admired for appropriating a tradition that's still regarded as "savage" by some Anglo eyes."

This "culture appropriation" idea is weird. My culture is North-Western European Protestant and most of the world appropriates at least part of that. How am I harmed by that? Should I be up in arms when a Chinese pianist gives a brilliant rendition of a Bach fugue? Hardly. I just applaud.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

"FAT" is a forbidden word

If you're trying to win over customers this Halloween, this is certainly not the way to go about it. Walmart apologised on Monday after sparking outrage for labeling plus-sized Halloween costumes as "fat girl costumes" on its website.

"This never should have been on our site," a spokesperson from Walmart said. "It is unacceptable, and we apologise. We are working to remove it as soon as possible and ensure this never happens again."

The issue was first reported by Jezebel on Monday, who called the company's costume section "truly the hottest of messes."

People expressed outrage the most public way they knew how: on Twitter.

The company later removed the all plus-sized items from the category, leaving the "Fat Girl Costumes" page empty — though the category remained on Walmart's website.

Since when has possessing weird cartoons been a criminal offence? Stuff that is common and normal in Japan now earns jail-time in Britain

Until this week, Amazon’s decision to put racism warnings on old episodes of Tom and Jerry looked like it would be the frontrunner for the most absurd cartoon-related overreaction of the year. Not anymore. That position has been stolen by the UK courts’ decision to give a nine-month suspended prison sentence to Robul Hoque, a 39-year-old man from Middlesbrough, for possession of Japanese-style manga images and anime cartoons. Several of these images depicted young girls exposing themselves and engaging in sexual acts.

During the trial, Hoque’s barrister, Richard Bennett, insisted that the material was available on legal pornographic websites and the presiding judge, Tony Biggs, emphasised that ‘no actual children or perpetrators [were] involved’. Even so, the judge believed that the possession of the ‘repulsive’ comics and cartoons were worthy of a prison sentence, because, he said, anything that may encourage child abuse should be ‘actively discouraged’.

This is the second time that Hoque has been prosecuted. In 2008, he was prosecuted for possessing Tomb Raider-style computer graphics depicting nude children. On that occasion, he was convicted of the made-up-sounding crime of producing ‘indecent pseudo-photographs’ – that is, the images were so realistic that they were almost indistinguishable from real photos. That’s right, he was convicted on the basis that the digital drawings he possessed were quite good, even though, yet again, no actual children were involved.

However, apart from Hoque’s two prosecutions for possession of erotic art depicting children, he has no convictions for child abuse, possession of actual child pornography, or convictions for anything else, for that matter. In other words, there is no reason to believe he is a threat to children.

This is what makes the case so chilling. Hoque was convicted of a thought crime, not a sex crime. That’s because a sex crime needs a victim. But not only was what Hoque did a victimless crime, it was also one that everyone else would have been oblivious to had the police not actively sought Hoque out.

Hoque’s conviction sets a shocking precedent. It empowers the state to police one’s fantasies, to voyage inside a person’s head and monitor its contents. It seems that what was once the stuff of sci-fi dystopias, is now normal in twenty-first century Britain. And that really is disturbing.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Model Chrissy Teigen quits Twitter after 'sea of hate' following gun control comments

MODEL (and Twitter favourite) Chrissy Teigen has quit the social media site after getting lost in a "sea of hate and anger" over comments she made regarding gun control.

The 28-year-old, who quickly gained a following on the site thanks to her irreverent sense of humour, was slammed by Twitter users in response to her comments regarding last week’s Ottawa shootings.

“Active shooting in Canada, or as we call it in America, Wednesday,” Tiegen wrote. “That's not a joke. It is a fact. ... I've lost faith in this world. Sorry if it comes off as being unemotional. There is just so much bad.”

Tiegen, who’s married to musician John Legend, quickly copped a landslide of hate, which prompted her to clarify that she was not making a joke at the expense of Canada, but as an observation about gun control in America.

However her clarification did little to stop the vitriol.

At one point, Teigen posted a photo of the responses she was getting on Twitter, suggesting the site should be more proactive about stopping threatening tweets.

Enough was enough, though, for the model. “I can't see anything through the sea of hate and anger that is now my Twitter. Seriously I can't sift through it all,” she said. “It's gotten to the point people don't even see (t)he simplicity of the original tweet and have just wanted to get shaking-mad over something.”

Many people (e.g. here and here) have been appalled at the furore generated when some private emails from a professor of poetry at the University of Sydney, Barry Spurr, were leaked to the Leftist press. Prof. Spurr has been suspended over them. Many good points about the matter have been made by others but I would like to add some further points.

The opinions expressed by Spurr were basically old-fashioned these days and being an oldster myself, I share many of them. But the main thing that has the Left up in arms is the type of language Prof. Spurr uses. His vocabulary is the antithesis of political correctness, probably deliberately. For instance, when describing the undoubted increase in obesity in recent years, he refers to "fatties" instead of "people of girth" or whatever the politically correct term is these days.

And obesity figures prominently in the ways Spurr disapproves of modern life. He bewails a loss of standards these days and thinks that social customs, values and such things were better in the old days. And the fact that people were a lot slimmer back in the '40s and '50s is one of the examples he gives of slipping standards these days. But that is simply truthful. Politicians worldwide have declared a "war" on obesity, accompanied by a claim that we and our waistlines are going to the dogs these days. Spurr is right that standards have slipped.

Basically, Spurr offends against Leftist pieties without, I believe, saying much that would disturb the average Australian. But people who breach those Leftist pieties publicly earn such a torrent of Leftist abuse that people have become cautious about plain speaking. And the dominance of the Left in the media, in education and in the bureaucracy has made plain speaking simply dangerous to one's career on many occasions.

And Prof. Spurr was clearly aware of that. He confined his uninhibited language to private emails. But, with typical Leftist lack of scruple, someone (presumably someone involved in looking after the university email system) "hacked" Spurr's emails and forwarded them to a far-Left publication, which promptly reproduced them. Read them here for yourself.

And the very mention of some social groups is automatically called "racist" by Leftists, let alone claiming differences between those groups, and let alone using mocking language about such groups. So Spurr's references to Muslims as "mussies" is deep-dyed offensiveness to leftist minds.

And Spurr's failure to respect feminism was also deemed offensive, despite the fact that most men and many women would concur with that. We even had some good evidence of that in Australia a couple of years ago, when our Leftist Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, made an angry feminist speech condemning "misogyny". The speech was applauded by feminists worldwide but it sank Julia. Her popularity among men reached such catastrophic low in the public opinion polls that her own party booted her out of the Prime Ministership not long thereafter.

Spurr also despairs of the obsessive attention paid to Aborigines in Australian universities and elsewhere. You cannot go to a graduation ceremony in an Australian university these days without being addressed by some Aboriginal person about things that have little or nothing to do with the university. It is just political correctness and I deplore it too. It is simply boring and irrelevant. It does nothing for anyone as far as I can see. I am sure that the drunken Aborigines who infest many public places in Queensland, where I live, are not uplifted by it. It is just Leftist tokenism.

And it seems unlikely that even Leftists believe in their own pieties. Every now and again their real beliefs do leak out. A prime example comes from the constant arguments about voter ID in America. There is a lot of fraudulent voting in America. As that great authority on crime, Al Capone, said: "Vote early and vote often". In response American conservatives have pushed hard for people to present photo ID before they are allowed to vote. But because a lot of the fraudulent voting is in favour of Leftist candidates, Leftists have repeatedly gone to court to block the requirement for voters to present photo ID.

And what argument do Leftists constantly use to support their case? They argue that it would "disenfranchise" blacks. They claim, in other words, that blacks are too dumb to be able to acquire such ID, even though you need photo ID to do almost anything in America. And the whole Leftist program of "affirmative action" reveals a barely hidden belief that blacks are unable to make it in open competition with whites. With their constant obessing over race, it is Leftists who are the real racists and the big hypocrites. More on that here

I saw that hypocrisy repeatedly in my research career. Although nothing could be more authoritarian than Leftism (they want to MAKE people behave in a way they approve of) my survey research always revealed great reluctance for Leftists to approve of anything authoritarian or pro-authority. They could not admit their own motivations. Leftists rely heavily of the psychological defence mechanisms of denial and projection. On many issues, they just cannot let reality in at all.

And I showed long ago. that Leftists will espouse views that they actually disagree with if it suits their purpose. And in the run-up to the 2004 American presidential election, John Kerry and other Leftists even argued for the status quo and something very similar to the venerable Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 in order to criticize GWB's military excursions in the Middle East! See here and here

And their condemnation of "racism" is of a piece with their hypocrisy. As psychological research has often shown, it is completely natural for people to have a preference for people like themselves, for their own group. And they do. But say so out loud and Leftists will come down on you like a ton of bricks. As human beings, they too have such feelings but for political expedience, they deny it. There are many Barry Spurrs out there and many of them will be Leftist -- JR

Monday, October 27, 2014

UK: Parents want Disney’s Frozen T-shirt pulled from shelves because picture of Elsa 'looks like she's flicking the V-sign and is encouraging children to swear'

Parents have complained that t-shirts featuring a character from the blockbuster movie Frozen are a bad influence on their children because she appears to be making an offensive gesture.

They say that the £9.99 tops, which are for sale through H&M, show Elsa apparently making a V-sign, and are calling for the chain to pull the t-shirts because they say their children are copying the pose.

The Disney character features on millions of items of merchandise, including clothes and stationery, and is supposed to be making snowflakes with her special powers.

The £9.99 long-sleeved t-shirts are currently on sale in high street clothes store H&M and on their website.

The Kansas City Star reports on Peregrine Honig, who created the design for "Lucky Royals" women’s boyshorts, featuring the words "take the crown" and a "KC" logo emblazoned on the rear, in honor of the Kansas City Royals baseball team making it to the World Series.

Honig was going to sell the boyshorts in her store, Honig’s Birdies Panties. Then a pair of DHS agents stopped by:

Homeland Security agents visited the Crossroads store and confiscated the few dozen pairs of underwear, printed in Kansas City by Lindquist Press.

"They came in and there were two guys" Honig said. "I asked one of them what size he needed and he showed me a badge and took me outside. They told me they were from Homeland Security and we were violating copyright laws."

She thought that since the underwear featured her hand-drawn design that she was safe. But the officers explained that by connecting the "K" and the "C," she infringed on major league baseball copyright. (The officials involved could not be immediately reached for comment.)

In Switzerland, labels from the mini-cream containers are collectibles, and producers often seek new and inventive ways to enhance their appeal.

Tristan Cerf, a spokesman for Migros, said the mishap had occurred when an outside company asked ELSA, a dairy manufacturer and Migros subsidiary, to supply a series of 55 coffee cream containers based on vintage cigar labels, two of which featured the dictators.

He said that the outside company had provided the controversial designs, and that ELSA typically produced plastic creamers with charming and innocuous images on them - not fascists.

He said: 'I can't tell you how these labels got past our controls. Usually the labels have pleasant images like trains, landscapes and dogs - nothing polemic that can pose a problem.'

Cerf emphasised that the accidental circulation of the plastic Hitler creamers had nothing to do with the country's social mores, but rather reflected an isolated mistake.

A winning high-school football coach was fired after the team’s tradition of eating watermelon after games was deemed “inappropriate” and “racist.”

Bud Walpole had been coaching Academic Magnet Raptors football team, and was in the middle of a very successful season, according to CBS Charlotte.

A current Raptors player said the tradition began when players bought watermelons from a man who had been selling them on their route to the game. If they won the game, the team decided, they would eat the watermelon. After they did win, they smashed the watermelon on the ground and then ate it. (The team had to smash their victory fruit because they, understandably, did not have a knife on the sidelines.)

The ritual continued at subsequent victories — until one parent from an opposing school allegedly complained. According to Charleston school-board member Mike Miller, a parent approached him and said he was offended by the students eating watermelon. The parent also alleged some of the kids were making what sounded like monkey noises.

This parent’s complaint led to a Charleston County School District investigation into the watermelon-eating and Walpole’s eventual firing.

Walpole will still be allowed to teach at the school. Thousands have signed an online petition demanding that he be reinstated as coach.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Mango forced to apologize for 'anti-Semitic' shirt bearing lightning bolts similar to insignia worn by the SS in Nazi Germany

This is a silly response to a coincidental resemblance. Nobody would think this pattern promoted Nazism

Spanish retailer Mango has come under fire for selling a shirt decorated in lightning bolts that resemble an insignia worn by the SS and Hitler youths in Nazi Germany.

Twitter users, especially those in Germany, were up in arms after they spotted the resemblance, noting that the tiny black zig-zag lines on the $59.99 blouse look just like the Siegrune, a symbol used by the Schutzstaffel or SS, the Nazi party's protection squadron, during World War II.

Mango has since apologized, calling it an 'unfortunate association', but the criticism has continued to pour in.

Negative associations: The Siegrune (pictured in a 1940 recruitment poster for the Waffen SS, a wing of the Nazi party) was a common symbol on Nazi uniforms and on Nazi flags

One Twitter user called the shirt an 'epic #design fail,' while another branded it 'Nazi chic'.

A third person remarked: 'After Zara, the SS shirt by Mango,' referring to an incident in August, when Zara was forced to apologize for selling a striped T-shirt that appeared to resemble clothes warn by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.

The cross on the book cover above has hooks on the end of it that can make it look like a swastika. One wonders if the artist was aware that Hitler called his symbol a "hooked cross". It seems likely. The symbol on the book was certainly asking for trouble and may have been a deliberate provocation. It is clearly an attempt to slime American Christians as Nazis. That hundreds of thousands of American Christians died fighting Nazism is not mentioned of course

Amazing the trouble that a reaction-baiting local TV news segment can work up, isn’t it? In Euclid, a small city to the east of Cleveland, Ohio, the race to send a representative to the state house in Columbus recently got a healthy injection of political punk art—not always the most welcome addition to a candidate’s resume. The controversy stems from a book that one of the candidates wrote in 2008, a book of good old-fashioned pamphleteering called Please God Save Us. The text of the book is by current Euclid school board member and possibly future state representative Kent Smith, and the art is by renowned master of the punk rock poster idiom, Derek Hess.

On September 22, a markedly one-sided news segment by political reporter Tom Beres on local station WKYC all but accused Smith of being a virulent anti-Semite—over a book that has nothing to do with Jews or Judaism—because Hess (not Smith), in order to land a specific point about specifically extremist brand of Republican thinking—incorporated a modified swastika in some of the images.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Black Pete, the jolly sidekick of the Dutch Saint Nicholas, is finally getting a facelift after years of bitter debate including death threats against those calling for change.

An Amsterdam court's ruling in July that Pete - traditionally dressed in a gaudy medieval costume with a blackened face, red lips and an afro wig - is a 'negative stereotype' encouraged many to try to change the deeply rooted custom.

'It's the beginning of change, it will continue for years to come because more and more people agree it should change but it's going to take a long time,' said historian Gabor Kozijn, author of a study on Black Pete for the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage.

With less than two months before Dutch kids' favourite day, December 5, when Saint Nicholas and Pete hand out presents, the debate has reached fever pitch, with Black Pete's defenders refusing to admit there is anything racist about the playful character.

In Gouda, where Saint Nicholas and dozens of Petes will 'arrive' on November 15 with a gift-filled boat from Spain in a national event broadcast live on television, the mayor on Tuesday decided to introduce some new colours.

Besides a number of Black Petes, there will also be 'Cheese Petes' with yellow faces and 'Stroopwafel Petes' with striped, light brown faces resembling the traditional Dutch syrup biscuit of the same name.

'There is no simple way to find a solution that everyone can identify with,' said Gouda Mayor Milo Schoenmaker.

Gouda's Black Petes 'changed several years ago to dark brown without stereotypical big red lips and earrings,' the city hall added.

The England rugby team is suppressing a patriotic film rallying support for the side due to fears of “political ramifications” including from Scottish nationalists.

Stuart Lancaster, the side’s head coach, said he was concerned that the video, which promotes “English identity”, could prompt claims of “arrogance”.

In comments reported by the Financial Times, Mr Lancaster said the team had been shown the film, which is said to be so emotionally charged that it prompted tears among some of the audience at the private viewing.

He said he had been inspired by the way that other teams, including Wales, played for a “cause”, with the entire country rallying around the national side.

However, he said he feared a backlash if the film, which features former players such as Bill Beaumont and Peter Winterbottom, was released publicly as part of efforts to produce a similar effect in England.

The side will face Scotland in the annual Six Nations tournament in February and there are fears that the film could provoke anger among separatists, particularly in the wake of last month’s independence referendum.

He said: “If you start talking about Englishness you are soon seen as arrogant. We have to make sure we have our feet firmly on the ground and show we are not an arrogant team.”

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Even feminists must not criticise trannies

Julie Bindel, feminist author and co-founder of the group Justice for Women, is no stranger to campus censorship. The National Union of Students (NUS) LGBTQ policy used to ban Bindel from speaking at any union event, based on her allegedly transphobic opinions; ‘Julie Bindel is vile’ was an official clause in the NUS’s LGBTQ strategy.

Bindel’s opinions caused a big stir in 2004, when she wrote that a ‘world inhabited just by transsexuals’ would ‘look like the set of Grease’. And, 10 years later - despite the fact that the official, NUS ban was eventually dropped - she is still the target of students’ union moral posturing.

This week was no different: Bindel was invited and then disinvited from speaking at a student-run event at the University of Sheffield. In an email seen by spiked, Bindel’s invitation was cancelled days after she had accepted. The reason? The invitation was found to be in breach of a Sheffield Students’ Union policy – which states that all union-hosted events must be ‘LGBT friendly’. A student council voted to stop Bindel from speaking.

It is exactly this kind of pre-emptive censorship that is maintaining a babyish climate at British universities. Students’ union policies are so concerned with attaining the moral high ground that they won’t even entertain the presence of those they disagree with – regardless of the subject.

But even if Bindel was invited to speak on trans issues, even if she turned up dressed as John Travolta, in homage to her much-abhorred article, she should be allowed to speak. A debate without opposing and strong opinions is not a debate; it’s a bore. Students should seek out enthusiastic and opinionated speakers. This, after all, is how opinions are formed and tested – through argument.

John Grisham is taking back statements he made about child pornography and sex offenders. In a recent interview with the UK's Telegraph, the lawyer and prolific author of books and Hollywood adaptations such as "The Firm," "The Pelican Brief" and "A Time to Kill" sparked outrage when he expressed his belief that some people who view child pornography online are receiving punishments that don't match the scale of the crime.

"We have prisons now filled with guys my age, 60-year-old white men, in prison, who've never harmed anybody (and) would never touch a child," Grisham said during a conversation about high U.S. prison rates. "But they got online one night and started surfing around, probably had too much to drink or whatever, and pushed the wrong buttons and went too far and got into child porn. ... They deserve some type of punishment, but 10 years in prison?

"There's so many of them now, sex offenders ... that they put them in the same prison, like they're a bunch of perverts or something."

"I have no sympathy for a real pedophile. But so many of these guys don't deserve harsh prison sentences.

Those comments and the nature in which Grisham discussed the very serious issue of child pornography incited a flood of hurt, disappointed and angry reactions from fans.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

You’re free in Sweden to be critical of immigration, those in power, or people identifying as “LBGT” — at least within the confines of your mind. But dare express those views, even on the Internet, and you can now be more easily prosecuted under a new law taking full effect after Christmas.

We recently learned about how anti-immigration Internet commenters in Sweden were tracked down and persecuted. As journalist Pamela Geller wrote:

"One of Sweden’s biggest newspapers, Expressen, used criminal hackers to break into Disqus and get the email addresses and identities of commenters online, and to reveal the persons behind the nicknames or anonymous user IDs. The newspaper sent a reporter and a cameraman to one person’s home and asked them about things they had written on different websites. Expressen published the names and photos of some people, which led to at least one person losing his job."

But Sweden’s new law adds another layer of hate-speech prohibition to the social ostracism. As Fria Tider (Free Times) reported (translated electronically from Swedish and then edited for grammar and word usage) in a piece entitled “New Law Makes it Easier to Prosecute Those Who Offend Immigrants or Those in Power,” “The crime of ‘insult’ will be prosecuted — but only for giving offense to immigrants, LGBTQ persons or authorities ... [under a] common insult to the public prosecution.”

The law has been pushed by Swedish parliamentarian Andreas Norlén, who said, during what Fria Tider described as “an unchallenged debate on the issue in parliament,” “I do not think it takes very many prosecutions before a signal is transmitted in the community that the Internet is not a lawless country — the sheriff is back in town.”

And unchallenged is precisely how Swedish authorities — and many other Western governments — want their leftist agenda to be, with immigration in particular enjoying sanctified status in Sweden. As CBN reported earlier this month in a piece entitled “Soviet Sweden? Model Nation Sliding to Third World”:

After a sales representative at Harper’s Magazine received a phone call on September 18 from a disgruntled advertiser, the subject of a critical story printed the week before, Publisher John R. MacArthur wasn’t surprised that it decided to pull ads from subsequent issues. But he was shocked by who that advertiser was: PBS, the public broadcaster famous for Big Bird and Ken Burns’ epic historical documentaries.

“Our readers are their viewers, which is why we thought it was an important story,” MacArthur said, referring to an essay in the October issue, “PBS Self-Destructs,” which argues that corporate and political influence increasingly cloud the network’s programming. “We’re part of the same family. So to have done such a petty thing does make me suspicious.”

Pulling advertisements is an age-old tactic for businesses facing media criticism to seek retribution. But in the case of PBS, which exists in part as a way to limit commercial influence on educational television, doing so just feeds into writer Eugenia Williamson’s thesis — that the idealistic, Great Society-era initiative often behaves more like a corporate or political organism.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Judy Finnigan vs the offencerati

British TV presenter Judy Finnigan has apologised ‘unreservedly’ for causing offence on Monday lunchtime’s Loose Women show on ITV1. As well she might, given the tidal wave of furious tweets and Facebooked outrage from the ‘offencerati’ that came her way. So what did she say that was so outrageous? What did she utter that was so morally vile? Loose Women is a sometimes raucous, grown-up show, so she must have said something shocking, right?

Well, no, not really. All Finnigan said was that the rape for which footballer Ched Evans was imprisoned in 2012 ‘was not violent’: ‘He didn’t cause any bodily harm to the person… It was unpleasant, in a hotel room, I believe, and she was – she had far too much to drink… and you know, that is reprehensible, but he has been convicted and he has served his time.’ She went on to say: ‘Now when he comes out, what are we supposed to do? Just actually refuse to let him do his job?’

That’s it, folks. It was just someone giving her opinion on a, er, chat show. But, these days, having an opinion that is not-the-one-you-should-have can land you in all sorts of trouble. And often, until you apologise and promise never to think or say it again, you will be punished – in many cases, quite seriously. That is what is shocking, not Finnigan’s comments.

Finnigan’s public apology was revealing, too. ‘I apologise unreservedly for any offence that I may have caused as a result of the wording I used’, she said, which is really a way of saying she stands by what she thinks but is sorry that it caused such a furious reaction. She may even believe that if she had worded it better, all would have been fine. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t matter how she said it; the offencerati took up their cudgels because Finnigan had the audacity to question whether Evans should be booted out of football for a crime for which he has served his time. Worse still, she questioned whether the rape could be described as violent. She hadn’t read the rules: don’t think outside our tiny mindset; think nothing but evil thoughts about the wrong-doer; and do not treat a convicted rapist as someone deserving of a second chance.

As it happens, Finnigan’s argument is perfectly legitimate. But even if it wasn’t, even if she spouted bigoted nonsense, we still need to defend her right to say what she thinks. If we don’t, then our freedom to say what we think becomes a privilege, something handed down to us by our supposed betters. Their mantra is simple: say the right thing, or else.

The original golliwog was a children's soft toy, which children would cuddle affectionately. It was seen as a friendly and cheerful character -- so insofar as it resembles Africans it is compliment to them. I had a golliwog myself when I was about 4 in the 1940s

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Must not mention Greenie money in politics

Billionaire Tom Steyer gives millions to Greenie causes

This is hilarious: Scott wrote here about a video contest sponsored by far-left MoveOn and MAYDAY.US. Announcing the contest, MoveOn urged applicants to “make a 30-second ad to wake up America to the crisis of big money in our politics.” The public could vote on the contest entries.

The conservative group American Commitment took MoveOn at its word. They made this terrific video about Tom Steyer, the biggest hypocrite on the current political scene, and entered it in the contest:

Then a funny thing happened: conservatives flocked to to the contest site and voted for American Commitment’s video. Sure enough, American Commitment’s video was winning the contest. So what did the leftists who are running the contest do? They changed the rules! They have, in effect, wiped out all of the votes cast so far, and they are starting the voting over, as of today. Phil Kerpen documents the change on Twitter. The contest originally was supposed to terminate on October 16, now it begins on October 16. Not only that, voting will last for only 24 hours:

Is that pathetic, or what? But it’s not too late. Voting continues, under the new rules, until tomorrow at 5 p.m., Eastern time. You can vote here for the American Commitment video. Of course, no matter how many votes it gets, MoveOn’s far left panel of “judges” will no doubt award the prize to someone else. But still, making the Tom Steyer video the number one vote-getter is worthwhile. We did it once, we can do it again!

UPDATE: A representative of American Commitment wrote us earlier today:

"American Commitment’s Tom Steyer ad about money and politics is absolutely trouncing the competition with 15 times more votes as its nearest competitor with only 4 hours remaining under the original contest rules…

The most amazing thing is how they are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to prevent a video about the country’s largest political donor by far from winning a contest about money in politics. Because he’s a liberal."

Labour and disability charities are facing a growing public backlash for making a ‘disgusting spectacle’ of remarks by a Government minister about minimum pay for disabled workers.

Shadow Cabinet minister Angela Eagle looked shocked as a BBC Question Time audience turned on her when she demanded that welfare reform minister Lord Freud should resign or be sacked.

Lord Freud suggested that some disabled workers were seen as ‘not worth’ the £6.50 minimum wage and mused on whether the Government might be able to top up their wages to enable more to get into workplaces.

Labour leader Ed Miliband ambushed David Cameron with a transcript of the recording at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, also insisting the minister should be sacked.

He has remained in his job after apologising, but Miss Eagle insisted on Thursday night: ‘I do think he should resign. I think what he said… has caused a great deal of offence to disabled people.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on the programme it was clear Lord Freud had been talking about the state ‘topping up’ the incomes of disabled people.

One audience member agreed: ‘I think Angela Eagle is being extremely disingenuous. I think we all knew what he meant, even though he said it clumsily.’

Another person in the audience in Newbury, Berkshire, told Miss Eagle: ‘What you are doing is hypocritical point scoring and it’s disgusting.’

A young woman said: ‘I just wanted to see whether you [Eagle] would use this as a political football and you have done – thanks Angela.’

Yesterday a Conservative MP also defended Lord Freud, insisting that the minimum wage was having a detrimental impact on disabled people’s chances of finding work.

Friday, October 17, 2014

The language of economics can be dangerous

A British government minister was using the language of economics when he said that disabled people may "not be worth" the minimum wage. This was taken as a moral judgment but it was a perfectly orthodox statement in economics. He was simply pointing out that what was produced by disabled people (in sheltered workshops etc.) may not sell for enough money to pay the minimum wage. In those circumstances disabled people could be locked out of employment completely. Allowing a smaller minimum wage for disabled people, however, could keep them in work. It was a compassionate argument but was grievously misunderstood so he had to grovel

Lord Freud said he was “foolish” to suggest that disabled people should not be entitled to the minimum wage and admitted that his comments could be seen as “offensive”.

The welfare minister offered a “full and unreserved apology” but stopped short of resigning after suggesting people with disabilities are not "worth" the minimum wage of £6.50 an hour.

It comes after David Cameron slapped down his welfare minister for the comments at Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon.

Lord Freud said: "I would like to offer a full and unreserved apology. I was foolish to accept the premise of the question. To be clear, all disabled people should be paid at least the minimum wage, without exception, and I accept that it is offensive to suggest anything else.

"I care passionately about disabled people. I am proud to have played a full part in a government that is fully committed to helping disabled people overcome the many barriers they face in finding employment.

He added: "I am profoundly sorry for any offence I have caused to any disabled people."

Glastonbury to ban stallholders selling Native American headdress because they might be racist

Traders at next year's Glastonbury Festival have been banned from selling Native American headdresses following an online petition that got just 65 signatures.

Daniel W Round launched a campaign to ban the popular festival accessory on Change.org, arguing that wearing them is 'offensive and disrespectful'. The ban does not stop festival goers from wearing them.

Mr Round said the headdress had become 'increasingly prevalent' over the past few years at Glastonbury and other music festivals, which was a 'concerning trend'.

He wrote: 'This summer in particular, I noticed far more festival-goers wearing the headdress as an item of fashion than at previous events - hence this petition.

'There has long been consensus among indigenous civil rights activists in North America about the wearing of headdresses by non-Natives – that it is an offensive and disrespectful form of cultural appropriation, that it homogenises diverse indigenous peoples, and that it perpetuates damaging, archaic and racist stereotypes.'

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Greek anti-racist bill: say the right things, or else...

Last week, the coalition government in Greece finally managed, after lengthy debates and bargains, to reach an agreement on a new bill aimed at tackling ‘forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia, through the use of criminal law’.

The development of the so-called anti-racism bill is easy to trace. It first evolved from a ‘framework decision’ made by the European Council in 2008, which called on member states of the European Union to adopt stricter measures against offences committed with racist motives. The adoption of such legislation was embraced by the Greek coalition government’s centre-left allies, Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and Democratic Left (which was later to leave the coalition), as an opportunity to score some points against the right-wing leaders of the coalition, New Democracy. Finally, the bill can also be seen as a reaction to the calls for something to be done about the increasing levels of violence and hate directed at immigrants and sexual minorities in Greece that has accompanied the rise of neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn. However, despite some good intentions, the ‘anti-racism’ bill should be seen for what it is: a serious assault on freedom of speech that sets a dangerous precedent for criminalising ideas rather than actions.

The bill contains two particularly problematic provisions. Firstly, it criminalises the ‘incitement of violence or hatred’ against individuals or groups of people based on their sex, race, religion and sexual orientation. Following the illiberal example of the UK and, more recently, Australia, this amounts to the criminalisation of hate speech. As the experience of anti-hate speech legislation has shown in the UK and Australia, prosecutions for ‘incitement of violence or hatred’ rarely have anything to do with actual incitement (which, in Greece, is already covered by existing legislation). In the cases that have been prosecuted in the UK and elsewhere, the link between the expression of an idea and actual violence is either missing or quite vaguely defined. As a result, these laws end up clamping down on unpopular ideas, not violent actions.

The second, even more problematic, provision in the bill criminalises ridiculing or ‘maliciously’ denying the Holocaust and the genocides committed by the late Ottoman Empire against Pontic Greeks and Armenians. Advocates of the bill claim that this provision won’t hinder historical and scientific research, as the denial will be prosecuted only when it is ‘malicious’. It is interesting to note that many conservative Greek MPs agreed to vote for the bill only when the offence of denying the genocide of the Greek population at the hands of the Ottomans was added. This shows how unprincipled the bill is; for the sake of serving petty, short-term political concerns, Greece becomes yet another country where ‘crimes of opinion’ are penalised.

In Asia, swastikas are simply a traditional good luck sign and this item was made in Asia. "Swastika" is in fact an Indian term that was adopted by the British. Hitler called his symbol a "hooked cross" (Hakenkreuz). There are swastikas everywhere in India

Sears and Amazon.com have pulled a ring emblazoned with a swastika from their online stores after the Nazi-linked symbol sparked outrage on social media. Sears apologized for the item on Tuesday and removed it from its catalogue. The company says the ring was a “third party marketplace item” that violated its guidelines.

Responding to one user who called the ring "disgusting," Sears tweeted: "This was a 3rd party Marketplace item that has since been removed for violating our guidelines. Thanks for your feedback."

The silver ring has a sideways black swastika etched into it, and was listed as a men’s punk rock fashion accessory online.

The item is no longer available on the Sears or Amazon websites, but a cached version of the Amazon webpage says the ring is made of .925 Thai silver and manufactured by CET Domain in Hong Kong.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Senator Dean Smith, who has broken government ranks to support a renewed push to remove the shackles on free speech, says he refuses to be lectured by [Leftist leader] Bill Shorten on racism and xenophobia.

Adopting the language used by former prime minister Julia Gillard in her misogyny speech, Senator Smith said the Opposition Leader had accused him of wanting to "give the green light to racist hate speech".

"I will not be lectured on racism and xenophobia by this man, I will not," he said.

"I will not be lectured to about racism and xenophobia by a man who less than one month ago stood before a crowd of unionists on a flatbed truck in Adelaide and gave the most disgraceful, racist, xenophobic speech any Australian political leader has given in ­decades."

Mr Shorten last month came under fire for attacking the ­mooted purchase of Japanese ­submarines.

Senator Smith’s comments came during spirited debate on Family First senator Bob Day’s ­attempts to rework section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act to remove the words "offend and ­insult".

There are blacking-up traditions in many European countries (e.g. Britain, Germany and The Netherlands) that long precede America's 19th century black minstrels but the din created by modern day American Leftists over their past tends to obscure that. So people in Europe need to stress the different origins of their traditions

The Prime Minister was enjoying a day out with his family at the Banbury Folk Festival near his constituency in Oxfordshire on Saturday when he was collared by the Foxs Morris troupe. He happily posed with the dancers, holding his daughter Florence in his arms.

In April Jack Straw's son Will, who is standing as a parliamentary candidate in next year's general election, caused a stir when he posed with a similar group, with some people branding him "racist" on Twitter.

Martin de Vine, founder and Squire of the Foxs Morris dancers, said: "David Cameron was having a coffee and we saw him and just asked if he would have a picture taken.

"We dance in the style of Border Morris, and we black our faces because farm labourers who were out of work in the winter months would go around begging, performing a dance in return for money.

"They blacked their faces with soot because it was illegal to beg and they didn't want to be recognised. It was a disguise, in the same way that the leader of the troupe wears a top hat and is called the squire to take the mickey out of the local squire.

"It's not racist and offence is never taken. People from other cultural backgrounds don't see it as that at all. We have had an Arab person dancing with us in the past - it's not seen as racist."

The term border morris refers to the English/Welsh border where the dancing originated.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said of the photograph: "I don't see it as something on which any kind of comment is needed." He said the Prime Minister shared that view.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Free Speech Exercised, Tested At U Kentucky's Constitution Day

Some high school and UK students crowded into the Cats Den Wednesday for the university’s annual Constitution Day Celebration. Since 2004 all publicly funded universities are required by law to commemorate the signing of the document and provide an opportunity for reflection on the freedoms it affords.

The right of free speech was tested however with the appearance of U-S Senate write-in candidate Robert Ransdell who used his allotted time to deliver a racist rant about the "Jewish-owned and controlled media," as well as to "stress the need for this nation's white majority to recognize that they have ethnic interests," before having his microphone cut off by the sound crew.

The horrified high school teachers then hustled their students to their respective buses, prompting this rejoinder from UK Rural Journalism director Al Cross.

"You've just witnessed in this hall a laboratory experiment about the extent and nature of free speech. I think most of you found the remarks of the write-in candidate deeply offensive, however in this country people do have the right to speak, even if their views are offensive. Now organizations can have their own rules about how much access they are going to give people like that but they do have a right to speak," Cross said.

Many Jewish writers think that antisemitic speech should not be suppressed. Suppressing it gives the impression that there might be something in it. And note below that antisemitism is also still found on the Left.

A top executive at Media Matters for America and the principal activist in the “Stop Rush” campaign made racist and anti-Semitic comments and disparaged “trannies” on a dormant blog that he wrote just several years prior to his prominent liberal activism career.

Blog entries reviewed by The Daily Caller show that Angelo Carusone made derogatory remarks about ethnic groups and used language to insult “trannies” and ugly “gays” that would be considered hate speech by his own organization.

Carusone is the executive vice president of the George Soros-funded progressive advocacy group Media Matters for America, headed by David Brock, which has built a nonprofit cottage industry out of targeting conservatives in media and flagging their politically incorrect statements for coverage by mainstream media outlets.

Carusone is identified by insiders as the lead organizer of the pressure campaign to intimidate radio host Rush Limbaugh’s advertisers, which accuses Limbaugh of bigotry.

“Wednesday night I hit up the club 2686, formerly known as Luxe and for some odd reason still referred to by homos as Luxe,” Carusone wrote. “I went with my good friend Mike, who’s quite the badboy/notorious homo, although despite his omnipresence, he manages to live a reasonably drama free life. It’s almost shocking…”

Caursone’s “reasons not to go” to the club included “Bartenders are not attractive (*gasp* they even have some female bartenders)” and “Long Island gays are primarily ugly, except for a select few.”

Monday, October 13, 2014

An atheist group has demanded that an Oklahoma school remove a poster from its main office–but the school district said “no.”

For the last 18 years, a poster based on a painting, “Faith in America” by Donald Zolan, has been displayed in the main office of Kenneth Cooper Middle School in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently sent a letter to Dr. Fred Rhodes, the Putnum County Schools Superintendent, arguing that the poster violates the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. [There is no such clause]

Freedom From Religion Foundation attorney Andrew Seidel wrote that the poster depicts “two children with their hands clasped in prayer, with an American flag background,” and as such is inappropriate material for a school.

“The meaning could not be more clear, real American children pray,” Seidel wrote.

Putnam County Schools attorney Anthony Childers responded to the atheist group, writing that the poster does not “promote any particular faith and does not create coercive pressure on students who may see the image.”

Childers added that the district will not be removing the poster.

In an email to Childers, Seidel called his response “insufficient” and threatened further action.

Swedish artist Dan Park has been sentenced to six months in prison and fined $10,000 for artworks that depict Roma and black people in a derogatory and offensive light, the Guardian reports.

On Thursday, he was convicted of both defamation and inciting hatred against an ethnic group for nine posters he created that were eventually seized from Gallery Rönnquist & Rönnquist in the Swedish city of Malmö in early July. The owner of the gallery, Henrik Rönnquist, also received penalties in the form of a conditional sentence and a hefty fine.

One of the offending posters depicted black men with nooses wrapped around their necks, while another implied that specific Roma community leaders condoned crime.

While it is atypical for Swedish courts to give out prison sentences for artworks, it was decided that these pieces were transgressive enough to warrant time behind bars.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

A SCHOOL in Nebraska has instructed its teachers to stop addressing students collectively as “boys and girls” when getting their attention in the classroom.

According to independent news website Nebraska Watchdog, the teachers were last week given a training document asking them to refrain from using gendered expressions like “boys and girls”, “you guys” and “ladies and gentlemen” and instead say something like “hey campers” or even more bizarrely “purple penguins.”

The recommendations are part of a list titled “12 steps on the way to gender inclusiveness” developed by an organisation called Gender Spectrum.

The handout also asked teachers to stop asking children to line up in rows of girls and boys, and ask them to line up depending on their preferences: “summer or winter, dogs or cats, skateboards or bikes.”

Step 3 suggests that teachers provide an opportunity for every student to identify a preferred name or pronoun at the beginning of the year and Step 6 asks teachers to inquire when they hear students referencing gender in a binary manner and ask “what makes you say that?” to start a discussion about gender stereotypes.

Lincoln Superintendent Steve Joel said the training manuals were introduced because the school district “wants all children to be successful and not feel like outcasts or be afraid to go to school,” Nebraska Watchdog reports.

According to Mr Joel, the school is currently in the process of rethinking how they use gendered locker rooms and bathrooms.

If teachers are offended by the training material, the are advised meet with their principal to discuss their concerns, Mr Joel said.

The program has received a range of feedback, with some parents praising the school for being inclusive, and other parents condemning the change.

By the very outspoken Gavin McInnes. There's another of his cutting essays here (Scroll down). He's also got a heap of hilarious videos on YouTube. My Favorite: http://youtu.be/loewtvw8i4Q

The trouble with reporting on free speech is it’s not interesting if it’s about the right to have a gay pride parade or criticize George W Bush. Only about 7 people have a problem with those things. The only time there’s nuance is when it’s about something that makes people uncomfortable. Say, pedophiles or the “God Hates Fags” guy or worse, “racial realists.”

James Kirchick over at The Daily Beast wanted to say that preventing “obscure racist” Richard Spencer from meeting like-minded people is wrong no matter how vile their beliefs. Only, even indicating that racists are included in the right to free speech is a career killer so Kirchick used the following 15 techniques for writing about this subject.

1- Put “Gets to play” in the title so it’s clear you think of the racist dude as a child.

“American Racist Richard Spencer Gets to Play the Martyr in Hungary”

-

2- In the subhead call them “obscure” so it’s clear you think they’re irrelevant.

“By banning a conference of relatively obscure racists and jailing and deporting their leader, Budapest has managed to amplify their odious views, not discredit them.”-

3- Make your hypothesis interrogative so you can say, “I was only asking a question” if you’re forced to apologize.

“Should a country welcome a gathering of American “racial realists,” European far-right activists, Russia’s top nationalist ideologue, and other self-proclaimed “Identitarians” in its capital?”-

4- Add square brackets and “stuff” to really drive home how silly you think these guys are.

“over the first weekend of October to “share ideas,” “make new [white] friends,” and do other fun white people stuff.”-

5- Talk about how white their neighborhoods are like you’re from Harlem.

“advocates ‘a White Ethno-State on the American continent.’ Whitefish, Montana, where NPI is based, is apparently not sufficient.”

-

6- Reiterate how much you hate these guys by calling them “rock bottom.”

“You know you’ve hit rock bottom as a professional white nationalist when the guy who made international headlines for standing up in parliament to demand a list of Jews who pose ‘national security risks’ tries to distance himself from you for being too racist.”

-

7- Bring back in that “obscure” from the title and throw in an “odious.”

“Budapest has turned a relatively obscure group of racists into global martyrs for free speech, and in so doing has amplified their odious views, not discredited them.”

-

8- Preface any “intellectual” with “pseudo.”

“not heroic liberal democrats exchanging dangerous thoughts on the latest Václav Havel play but a bunch of racist pseudo-intellectuals.”

-

9- Just to be safe, throw in a “stupid” too.

and treated like a common criminal, though his alleged crime was harboring stupid and bigoted thoughts.

-

10- Repeat it.

“It’s not a crime in Hungary to hold stupid and bigoted thoughts.”

-

11- Make the bad guys not know they are stealing from Jewish intellectuals.

“…this gave the process a certain ‘Kafka-esque quality.),’ Spencer wrote me. Franz Kafka lived in Czechoslovakia and wrote in German, facts one would assume to be pertinent to a self-described ‘Identitarian.’ Kafka was also Jewish.”

-

12- In case everyone’s retarded, just blatantly repeat that you don’t actually like the guy.

“I disagree with Spencer on pretty much everything imaginable, but I concur on this.”

-

13- Then call him a creep.

“I feel at seeing a white nationalist creep experience satisfaction by posing as a martyr to the cause of free speech.”

Friday, October 10, 2014

THE owner of a New Zealand cafe has apologised after printing a “repulsive” joke on the bottom of customer receipts in the wake of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius’ murder trial.

Pistorius, a 29-year-old double amputee, admitted to firing through a locked toilet door and killing is model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He said he thought he was shooting at an intruder and that Steenkamp was safely in bed.

The cafe’s joke read: “Oscar Pistorius was super keen to get a new bathroom door, but his girlfriend was dead against it.”

Keith Morrison, owner of Scorch-o-Rama in Scorching Bay, said the joke was removed after a complaint was made. The company then apologised online after copping heat on Twitter and on its Facebook page.

“Scorch-o-Rama would like to apologise for any offence caused by a comment that was put on the bottom of our receipts,” the Facebook post read. “The comment was in bad taste and has been removed. We apologise again for any hurt or distress we caused people — it was absolutely never our intention.”

The cafe traditionally posts jokes on its receipts but this one crossed the line. Morrison said he was now considering scrapping the jokes entirely.

A magistrate in Italy has had his knuckles rapped by top justice officials after he used a vulgar slang term to refer to the breasts of a sexual assault victim.

The unnamed man was carpeted by the Court of Cassation - the country's highest court - after using the word 'tette' (t*ts) in official court documents.

During a case in Torre Annunziata, a town in Campania, the prosecuting magistrate used the term in a written judgement when he referred to an area where two men had touched an underage girl, reports the Ansa news agency.

'Tette' is considered a colloquial term for breasts. A more formal word like 'seni' ('breasts' or 'bosom') would normally be used in court.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

Anti-Catholic ads rejected in Canada

As in Australia and Britain, Catholic schools in Canada receive government funding. A Canadian secularist however thinks that is "discriminatory". Not quite sure why. If everyone gets schooling at government expense, where is the discrimination? He may just be an old-time Protestant at heart. He is obviously no friend of diversity. He must realize that he has Buckley's chance of changing the mind of a government that wants the Catholic vote. A screw loose somewhere, I think

An Embrun dentist who wanted to run bus ads in Winnipeg protesting Ontario's separate school system says his rights have been violated by the ad company that rejected the campaign. Dr. Richard Thain planned to run the ads to coincide with the opening of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in September. The $10,000 campaign was to have run for four weeks and consisted of six ads with slogans such as "This is a human rights disgrace" and "Human rights violations in Canada."

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) is a national museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The museum is located at The Forks. "The purpose of the museum is to "explore the subject of human rights with a special but not exclusive reference to Canada, in order to enhance the public's understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue." It held its opening ceremonies on September 19, 2014.[

Instead, the company, Pattison Outdoor, rejected the ads, saying they might violate the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.

Part of the contract Thain signed said the company could reject ads that violated the code, but Thain said there is nothing wrong with his ads. Some of them are fact, and others are opinions, "and people express opinions all the time."

"It's a human rights issue, number one," he said. "Even if we didn't save one cent (by eliminating Catholic school boards) it would still be necessary to remove religious discrimination from our society. That's a basic principle of modern democracy."

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the body's consideration on Tuesday of censoring the word "Redskins" on the public airwaves.

"There are a lot of names and descriptions that were used over time that are inappropriate today," FCC chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters, according to Reuters, on a conference call. "And I think the name that is attributed to the Washington football club is one of those."

The consideration of a ban stems from a petition brought to the commission by George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf to revoke the license of Washington, DC-area radio station WWXX-AM, a sports outlet owned by Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. Banzhaf claims the team's name amounts to an obscenity.

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

The Athletes Formerly Known as R-word

Ebola is a breakout epidemic in West Africa that is killing thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people.

But here in the USA there is an even bigger crisis. America's capital city is represented by a National Football League team that is so politically incorrect that none, or at least a pair of nationally venerated sportscasters, dare speak its name, and it's killing thousands, if not millions, of enlightened citizens' feelings.

The team is the Washington R*dsk*ns and its name is considered by America's best and brightest Diversity Darlings to be offensive, insulting and racist.

A decade ago an Annenberg poll found that 90 percent of the very ethnic peoples to whom the politically incorrect word refers weren't bothered by the name while 9 percent said "they found the name offensive."

So what happened since then? The rate of outrage is now up to 67% by some counts. Have the people in question become enlightened? Radicalized? Manipulated by mass media, academia and liberal do-gooders? The 2004 Annenberg poll is now derided and labeled "infamous" by political correctness guardians. (If a poll doesn't fit your emotional preference attack it.)

The team's owner insists that he will never willingly give up the name; they'll have to pry it from his cold dead hands.

It's time then, not to change but to transcendentally uplift the name of the politically incorrect NFL franchise situated in the nation's capital, henceforth to be known as TAFKAR, "The Athletes Formerly Known as (R-word)."

See? It changes the actual name and logo so that socially sensitive sportscasters like Phil Simms and Tony Dungy can say "The Washington TAFKARs" while the team owner and fans can still say what the whole acronym actually stands for including that final, infamous R.

It was a blackout game, meaning that fans were asked to wear all-black clothing, but painting your face black opened a very old can of worms

A student wearing blackface to a recent football game has outraged members of the Black and African Coalition, and they are helping write a bill to be presented to Tempe Undergraduate Student Government that will prevent insensitive incidents like these from happening in the future.

Several students were photographed at the blackout football game against UCLA wearing blackface and the photo was posted on news organizations’ websites as a sign of school spirit.

However, BAC President Kyle Denman said the photo shows insensitivity and ignorance to the diverse student population on campus.

“The historical context of blackface is that it is demeaning to the African-American culture,” Denman said. “It doesn’t show school spirit; it represents cultural insensitivity at the end of the day.”

The bill will help bring awareness to racial issues at ASU events and the insensitivity that is taking place on campus, Denman said.

Tempe USG Senator Isabelle Murray, who is writing the bill, said she has heard people speaking about the blackface not really being an issue.

“I know some people who have said it’s not really blackface, he just painted his face black but if you take that picture out of context, how does that reflect on ASU?” she said.

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

American star Ben Affleck slammed TV host Bill Maher for comments made on Islam during an interview aired Friday on U.S. network HBO.

During a debate on Real Time With Bill Maher, Maher claimed that Islam as a religion was intolerant.

Maher later claimed in the debate that Islam was “the only religion that acts like the mafia — that will f*****g kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”

In response, Affleck then asked the panelists: “What is your answer? Is it just to condemn Islam? We've killed more Muslims than they have killed us by an awful lot.”

“Yet somehow we are exempt from these things. Because they are not really a reflection of what we believe in.”

He then said sarcastically: “It was by accident, that's how we invaded Iraq. I am explicitly telling you that I disagree with what you think.”

The Oscar-winning director also voiced disapproval when author and fellow talk show panel guest Sam Harris said the Muslim faith was the “motherload of bad ideas.”

“We can criticize Christians…but when you want to talk about the treatment of women, homosexuals and free thinkers in the Muslim world, liberals have failed us…we have been sold this meme of Islamaphobia - where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam is conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people. Which is intellectually ridiculous.”

Political correctness is apparently more important than educating children

At least that’s the message I take away from a Colorado Democrat’s plan to defund schools that have “unauthorized” mascots. Wielding the self-righteous tomahawk of political correctness, Democrat Joe Salazar has decided to leverage Colorado’s pawns kids as a bargaining chip in his effort to rid the world of “offensive” Native American mascots.

Under the Thornton legislator’s plan, schools will be required to seek permission from Native American tribes for their western-themed mascots, or go without any state funding. (On the bright side, I can now honestly say I’ve seen a Democrat propose a substantial cut to the state’s education spending.) Glossing over the fact that mascots are rarely chosen through malice (after all, no one is asking to use Salazar as a mascot), deciding to strip all K-12 funding because of a team name seems a little draconian.

Monday, October 06, 2014

Must not mention watermelons

A spokeswoman for the Boston Herald said Saturday that newspaper officials are looking forward to meeting with community members who were offended by its editorial cartoon meant to satirize the Secret Service after an intruder made it deep into the White House.

The Boston Herald apologized Wednesday after the newspaper featured a cartoon mocking President Barack Obama and the Secret Service that some say is racist.

It shows a man taking a bath watching President Barack Obama brush his teeth. The man says, "Have you tried the new watermelon flavored toothpaste?" The caption reads: "White House invader got farther than originally thought."

The cartoonist, Jerry Holbert, has apologized, saying he got the idea after finding "kids' Colgate watermelon flavor" toothpaste in the bathroom at his home and was "completely naive or innocent to any racial connotations."

The Boston Branch of the NAACP said Friday that the cartoon "reopened the wounds of race in Boston" and that the newspaper's "apology is an inadequate response." They asked for the newspaper to participate in a community meeting hosted by the NAACP to discuss the cartoon and what can be done to prevent racially offensive reporting.

Sunday, October 05, 2014

A racist cartoon?

For a tiny fraction of what NASA has spent on Mars probes, India recently put an orbiter around Mars -- and did it successfully on the first try, unlike NASA. Indians are rightly bursting with pride over the feat so are angered if they see it as being belittled. It is amusing to see the NYT accused of being insensitive, though. Portraying space scientists as poor farmers is a bit gross

It was really disappointing to see a racially inspired cartoon in New York Times trying to belittle Indian achievement in space. It is needless to say that the newspaper has been pulled badly by many people on social media handles like Twitter and Facebook. The worst thing was the fact that this racial cartoon was published while the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was there.

For many people it was one of the most discriminatory cartoons in a long time. NYT cartoon showed India trying to knock at a door. Behind the door two serious looking white old men were talking among themselves. The ones inside the room were shown to be US and Russia, space super powers that were unwilling to allow India enter the select space club. India was represented by a farmer in traditional north Indian clothes and a somber looking cow.

The Washington Post has been all over the White House security breach story, and rightly so. That a man with a weapon was able to make it into the White House is a huge failure of security. But as the story evolves, the telling of the story has evolved as well.

When news broke that Omar Gonzalez didn’t just make it in the building, but ran through quite a bit of it before captured, the Post was all over it. But, in reading various accounts of the latest revelations, I noticed a change in the story. One word was removed.

The Post‘s original story read:

"The female officer posted inside the front door appeared to be delayed in learning that the intruder, Omar Gonzalez, was about to burst through. Officers are trained that, upon learning of an intruder on the grounds, often through the alarm boxes posted around the property, they must immediately lock the front door."

Later in the night, in both the online and print edition, one word was omitted from that text:

"The officer posted inside the front door appeared to be delayed in learning that the intruder, Omar Gonzalez, was about to burst through. Officers are trained that, upon learning of an intruder on the grounds — often through the alarm boxes posted around the property — they must immediately lock the front door."

Notice it? The word “female” is gone, down the memory hole and changed to just the androgynous “officer.”

Why make that change? The original was factually accurate, the new version is technically accurate. One offers some information, the other offers all the information.

Is political correctness altering the Washington Post‘s coverage of a major threat to the first family?

Friday, October 03, 2014

Pippi Longstocking Is On Front Line of Political-Correctness Battle in Sweden

A Pippi Longstocking movie poster from 1969. Everett CollectionSwedish Television has cut out potentially offensive scenes from fresh editions of the popular 1969 Pippi Longstocking series, sparking intense debate on social media over the extent to which old productions should be modified to suit what is considered socially acceptable today.

In the fresh versions, set to be aired on a children’s channel in December, the unconventional Pippi will describe her dad as a “king” instead of a “negro king” and won’t play “Chinese” by stretching out the skin around her eyes.

The public broadcaster said those original scenes could be perceived as “hurtful or offensive” for children who watched it. The television series is based on the Pippi books by Sweden’s best-known and most beloved children’s author Astrid Lindgren, whose work is read in practically every Swedish family’s home.

“We live in a multicultural society with children from many different countries,” Paulette Rosas Hott, head of programming and licensing sales at Swedish Television, said. “Those kids should feel comfortable when they’re looking at this. And the parents should feel comfortable that their kids don’t learn expressions that they don’t support.”

Score one for Joe Scarborough. The Morning Joe host today unleashed a tirade against the FBI for treating as a case of "workplace violence" the beheading by a fanatical Muslim convert of a fellow worker in Oklahoma. Scarborough lashed out at the FBI's political correctness in claiming that there was "no indication" that the suspect, Alton Nolen, was copying the recent ISIS beheadings.

Said Scarborough: "how stupid does the FBI really think we are? Who exactly are they afraid of offending?" Political correctness, in its more innocuous manifestations, can be good fodder for humor. But when our government becomes so hobbled by PC that it cannot call Islamic fanaticism by its name, then political correctness becomes a grave threat to our national security.

Thursday, October 02, 2014

An interview with former prime minister Julia Gillard on Channel Ten's The Project has caused a backlash on social media.

Twitter has lit up with angry comments over an interview segment that featured former Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Channel Ten's The Project.

On Monday night, Gillard appeared on the show to speak about her new memoir, My Story, which details her time in the office as Australia's first female Prime Minister and the sexism she encountered.

After a brief introduction to Gillard's political legacy, the interview kicked off with birthday wishes from panelists Rove McManus and Carrie Bickmore, with the latter asking, "What has Tim [Mathieson] got you for your birthday, Juilia?”

When Gillard responded that she and Mathieson will be celebrating after she returns from her book tour on the weekend, McManus joked, "Is that a euphemism? Will he have a 'birthday suit'? Is that what you're suggesting?"

Despite visible discomfort at the inappropriate comment, the former PM responded good-humouredly, saying, “No, that was just a straight-up answer.”

Commenters on Twitter, however, weren't as forgiving, immediately calling out the disrespectful nature of the joke:

Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Mohammad

The truth can be offensive to some but it must be said

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."

Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"

One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson

"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn

Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.

The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.

Why conservatives should not respond to Leftist abuse: "Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both just get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it

A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.

Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.

Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human

Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?

If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862

Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?

The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand

Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."

"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica

Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here